Blast-furnace-charging device.



N0. 868,508. PATENTED OCT. 15, 1907. G. P..TURNER & J. W. DOU'GHBRTY.

BLAST FURNACE CHARGING DBVIGE. APPLIOATION mun His. 14.- 1901.

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No. 868,508. PATENTED OUT. 15, 1907,

c. P. TURNER'& J. W. DOUGH BLAST FURNACE CHARGING D E RTY.

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APPLICATION FILED FEB 14. 1907.

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v .PATENTED 001 .15, 1907. c. P.'TURNER & J. W. DOUGH ERTY. BLAST FURNACE CHARGING DEVICE.

APPLIOATION FILED FEB. 14, 1907.

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UNITED STATES PATENT oEEreE- CHARLES P. TURNER, OF HARRISBURG, AND JOHN WEBSTER DOUGHERTY, OF STEELTON,

PENNSYLVANIA.

BLAST-FURNACE-CHARGING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 15, 1907.

1 Application filed February 14,1907. Serial No. 357,430.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES P. TURNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Harrisburg, and JOHN WEBSTER DOUGHERTY, a citizen of the United States,

residing at Steelton, both in the county of Dauphin, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Blast-Furnace-Oharging Devices; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention relates to furnace charging devices, and has for its object to provide an automatic righting and dumping bucket operated by the movement of the buggy that carries said bucket, and means for orienting or positioning the bucket in any desired dumping direction, together with the details of construction more particularly hereinafter described and claimed.

Referring to the drawings, in which like parts are similarly designatedFigure 1 is a view showing the hoisting way in connection with a typical blast furnace. Fig. 2 is a View of the upper end of the way over the furnace showing the buggy with its bucket in dumping position. Fig. 3 is a front view of the mechanism of the buggy for holding the bucket in righted position. Fig. 4

r is a side elevation, and Fig. 5 is a plan view of the ori- 30 enting device, and Fig. 6 is a diagram showing the elec- .tric circuits for operating said device. Fig. 7 is an end view of the commutator or selecting drum.

The inclined way A is a built-up structure of iron or steel extending over the top of a furnace B, that is indicated in Fig. 1 as a typical blast furnace, the top of the way being supported from the top of the blast furnace bysuitable columns 0 or otherwise, and the lower end of which extends, preferably but not necessarily, into the stock house and adjacent the elevated bins D. By means of barrows or a lorry car E, the stock is transferred from the bins to the bucket when the latter is in its lowermost position in the pit F.

The way is preferably arranged so that two buggies can travel thereon, one ascending while the other is descending, there being two tracks on the way uniting at a frog into a single track extending over the top of the furnace. One end of the hauling rope G is connected to one of the buggies and the other end is connected to the other buggy, so that they will move simultaneously in opposite directions. head way being for operating buggies as above de- Such track structure and overscribed, being shown and described in our application Serial No. 357,428, of February 14, 1907.

The buggy 10 is provided with a hauling horn 11, preferably at its rear end, to which horn is attached a hauling rope, not shown in Fig. 2. Mounted in the buggy over or in an opening 10 between the ends of the buggy body is a block l2 having trunnions 13, and through this block 12 passes a sleeve 14 on the upper end of which is secured a bevel gear wheel 15 resting on block 12, the lower end of which sleeve 14 carries the bucket-supporting yoke 15 in which the bucket 16 is mounted by means of trunniofis 17. On one of the trunnions of block 12 is a bevel gear wheel 18, preferably, but not necessarily, made in one piece with the spur wheel 19 outside of the buggy frame.

Passing through the sleeve 14 is the bucket-actuating rod 20 on whose lower end is a link 21 connecting said rod to the bucket at 22 said rod when held in its elevated position, as shown in full lines in Fig. 2, main tains the bucket in its righted position. The upper end of the rod 20 is revolubly mounted in a cross-head 23, said cross-head slidable in a slotted yoke 24 whose lower ends are mounted on the trunnions of block 12. On this yoke is mounted a shaft 25 having secured to its ends hooks 26 to engage with stub shafts 27 projecting from the cross-head 23. These stub shafts carry between the yoke 24, and the hooks 26, the'fianged rollers 28. Projecting from the upper end of the yoke is a lug 29 carrying a spring 30 acting on the lever 31 secured to rod 25, said spring urging the hooks 26 at the ends of shaft 25 into engagement with the stub shafts 27.

On the way A at the top thereof is a stop 32, so that when the buggy moves thereunder into its dumping po sition the lever 31 will strike said stop and be rotated against the action of spring 30, rotate shaft 25 and the hooks 26 to withdraw them from the stub shafts 27 and thereby release the cross-head 23 and allow it to drop to the limit allowed by the slots 34 in the yoke 24. The rod 20 thereby allows the bucket 16 to dump, as shown in the dotted line position Fig. 2. As the buggy descends along the way the flanged rollers 28 ride upon short re-setting rails 35 inclined to the track at such an angle that when the flanged rollers 28 have passed over these rails they will have been lifted so that the stub shafts 27 will pass beyond the noses of the hooks 28 and be engaged by them, and thereby lift the rod 20 to right the bucket before reaching the lower end of the way.

The spur-wheel 19 is engaged by pawl 36, the tail of i which pawl rides on a cam rail 37 preferably at the lower end of the way to draw the nose of said pawl out of engagement with the spur-wheel before said spurwheel comes into engagement with the orienting device K, said orienting device comprising a rack having movable teeth. This rack rotates spur-wheel 19 and bevel wheel 18, which in turn rotates bevel wheel 15 secured on the end of sleeve 14 that carries the bucket, and thereby horizontally rotates the bucket, the rod 20 Within the sleeve being also free to rotate in its crosshcad 23, and this red may be slidably connected to the sleeve 14 by well-known slot and feather connection. The number of rack teeth at any one time in operative position determines the degree of angular rotation of the spur-wheel 19, and consequently the dumping direction of the bucket 16, and the-sequence of the various positions into which the bucket is rotated is controlled by the selective operation oi the rack teeth.

The orienting device K comprises a rack frame 37 having a number of slides 38 on each of which are mounted one or more teeth 39, said slides carrying a stop 40 to limit the movement of the slides so that the teeth moved thereby will be in proper alinement. Eachslide is pivoted at 41 to one end of a lever 42 whose other end is provided with a counter-weight 43, and each lever 42 is supported at 44 on a suitable pivot. Between the pivot 44 and the counter-weight 43 is pivotally connected to each lever the movable core 45 of a solenoid 46, which solenoids when energized drawthe cores inward against the action of the counterweight to withdraw its slide and the tooth or teeth thereon from operative alined position in the rack. Means for operating said solenoids are shown in Fig. 6, in which there is a battery 49, or any other suitable source of electricity, the wire 50 from one pole thereof having branches 51 leading to the several solenoids and terminating in brushes 52 supported by a bar 53, said brushes being in the path of contacts 54 arranged in parallel rows on a revoluble drum or commutator 55. Each of said contacts 54 is connected within the drum by wires 56 to the axis 57, said axis carrying at one end a disk 58 on which is a trailing contact 59 connected by wire 60 to the opposite pole of the source of electric supply or battery 49. The contacts 54 are arranged in parallel rows along the drum, the number of contacts being varied in accordance with the sequence desired to be produced in the number of teeth of the rack.

It is, of course, obvious that the cores of the solenoids may be directly connected to theslides carrying the teeth to move them into and out of operative position by electro-magnetic action alone or aided by a weight attached directly to the core, but the structure shown is our preferred form.

We claim:

1. In a furnace charging device a buggy, a bucket suspended from the bugg means to normally hold the bucket in righted position and operated by the movement of the buggy to rotate and dump the bucket and devices to actuate said means to right the bucket.

2. In a furnace charging device a buggy, a bucket hung from said buggy, means operated by the movement of the buggy in one direction to rotate the bucket to dump the same and devices to actuate said means to right the bucket by the movement of the buggy in an opposite direction.

3. In a furnace charging device, a bugg a bucket, a suspension for the bucket rotatably mounted in the bugg means to rotate the suspension operated by the movement of the buggy, means operated by the movement of the buggy in one direction to dump the bucket and means operated by the movement of the buggy in the opposite direction to right the bucket.

4. In a furnace charging device a buggy, a bucket, a hollow suspension for the bucket rotatively mounted in the buggy, a bucket actuating rod slidable within the suspension and also mounted to rotate, means carried by the buggy to hold the rod elevated, means to release the rod to dump the bucket and means to raise the rod to right the bucket and means to rotate the suspension.

5. In a furnace charging device a buggy, a bucket, a hollow suspension for the bucket mounted in the buggy to swing and also to rotate about its axis, a bucket actuating rod slidable within the hollow suspension mounted to partake of the swinging and rotating movements of the sus pension, means to hold the rod elevated, means to release the rod to dump the bucket, and means to raise the rod into engagement with its holding means.

6. In a furnace charging device a buggy, a bucket, a block a bevel gear wheel on the suspension having trunnions mounted in' the buggy, a tubular bucket suspension rotatably mounted in the block, a bevel gear wheel meshing with the aforementioned one mounted on one of the trunnions of the block, a spur wheel secured to the latter bevel gear wheel, a yoke, a cross head slidable therein, a bucket operating rod rotatably secured in the yoke, means to hold the cross head normally at the end of the yoke, means to release the cross head holding means to dump the bucket and means to move the cross head into engagement with its holding means to right the bucket.

7. The combination with a way having a stop thereon and righting rails inclined to the way, of a buggy, a block having trunnions mounted to swing in the bugg a tubular bucket suspension rotatably mounted in the block, a bucket mounted on trunnions at the end of the suspension, a bevel gear wheel secured to the suspension above the block, a bevel gear wheel mounted on one of the trun nions and meshing with the first mentioned wheel, a spur wheel connected to the latter bevel gear wheel, a yoke extending above the buggy, and having slotted sides, a cross head slidable in the yoke and having pins extending therefrom, a roller mounted on each pin, hooks to engage the pins, a rod rotatably mounted in the cross head and slidable within the tubular suspension, a link connecting the lower end of said rod and bucket, and a locking pawl engaging the spur wheel.

S. The combination with a way, a buggy to travel thereon, and a bucket rotatively mounted in the buggy, of an orienting device to rotate said bucket comprising a rack having movable teeth, solenoids to move the teeth, circuits for the solenoids, normally open and selector mechanism to selectively close said circuits and thereby selectively energize the solenoids.

9. The combination with a way, a buggy to travel thereon, and a bucket rotatively suspended from the buggy, of an orienting device to rotate the bucket comprising a rack having movable teeth, solenoids to move the teeth out of operating position, means to normally hold the teeth in their operating position, circuits for the several solenoids connected in parallel to a suitable source of electricity and rotating mechanism to selectively close said circuits and thereby selectively energize the solenoids.

10. In .a furnace charging device the combination with a buggy; of a bucket carried thereby, trunnions supporting the bucket eccentrically, means on the buggy to normally hold the bucket in righted position and operated by the movement of the buggy to cause the bucket to rotate on its trunnions to dump the same, and devices to actuate said means by the movement of the buggy to reversely rotate the bucket to right the same.

11. In a furnace. charging device the combination with a buggy, of a bucket suspended below the same in unstable equilibrium, means on the buggy and connected to the bucket to hold the bucket normally righted and released by the movement of the buggy to drop and dump thebucket, and devices to raise said means and right the bucket by the movement of the buggy.

12. In a furnace charging device, means to orient the bucket comprising movable rack teeth, solenoids for moving the teeth, a selector drum, and means on the drum to selectively close the electric circuits through the solenoids to selectively operate the rack teeth.

13. In a furnace charging device, means to orient the bucket comprising counterweighted rack teeth, solenoids to move the teeth against the action of their counterweights, and means to selectively energize the solenoids.

1-1. In a furnace charging device, means to orient the 10 bucket comprising a rack formed of movable teeth and means to selectively move the teeth, to alter the number of teeth in operative position in the rack.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing as our invention, we have signed our names in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES P. TURNER. JOHN WEBSTER DOUGHERTY.

Witnesses Gno. W. PARSONS, HOMER L. LIlZENBERG. 

